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By: The opinion Posted 07 Sep 2023, 20:07 pm EDT
Walt Disney Parks and Resorts on Thursday amended its lawsuit against Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and the governor-imposed oversight board, dismissing all but one of their claims.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court, now focuses solely on the claim that DeSantis and his allies allegedly used their political power as a weapon to retaliate against the company for exercising their right to free expression protected by the First Amendment, according to CNN.
“A targeted campaign of government retaliation, orchestrated at every turn by Governor DeSantis as punishment for Disney’s protected speech, now threatens Disney’s business operations, jeopardizes its economic future in the region, and violates its constitutional rights,” it says. the demand.
Last week, Disney had asked that its other claims in the case, which involve a dispute over Walt Disney World development contracts, be dropped because they are being actively pursued in a separate state-level lawsuit in Florida.
“We will continue to fight vigorously to defend these contracts, because these agreements will determine whether or not Disney can invest billions of dollars and create thousands of new jobs in Florida,” a Disney spokesperson said in a statement to CNBC.
The review, which rejects four claims that Disney had previously filed in the case, reduces the company’s federal civil lawsuit to 48 pages, compared to 84 in the previous version.
Disney had already amended its lawsuit once in May to accuse DeSantis and his allies of stepping up their attacks.
The second amended complaint filed Thursday is the latest legal twist in the two Disney lawsuits stemming from its protracted battle with DeSantis which began last year, when the company publicly denounced the controversial classroom bill dubbed “Don’t Say Gay” by critics.
DeSantis has leaned into culture war battles as governor and on the campaign trail as he seeks the 2024 Republican presidential nomination. He has criticized Disney with the politically charged term “woke” and accused the company of “sexualizing children.” ”, a claim that Disney CEO Bob Iger called “absurd and inaccurate”.
After Disney spoke out against the bill, which limits classroom discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity, DeSantis and his allies took aim at the special tax district that had allowed Disney to effectively self-govern its theme parks from Orlando area for decades.
The governor signed measures that changed the name of Disney’s special district in Florida that allowed it to manage its properties from the Reedy Creek Improvement District to the Central Florida Tourism Supervisory District and replaced its five-member board of supervisors with his own members. chosen.
Keep reading:
– The prohibitions that are transforming Florida into an ultra-conservative stronghold in the US.
– How Disney, Bud Light and other big firms are in the middle of the culture war in the US.
– What is “woke” and why this term has generated a cultural and political battle in the US.